I've decided for this performance that I will be taking the very first song I ever did a solo to and revamping it (I will also be giving it a first run May 11th at Dancenette!). The song is called Dringo Bell by the Medieval Babes. They are a classical choral ensemble from England and sing in Middle English. All the instruments are traditional as well and the music is haunting and beautiful.
I had been looking for an opportunity to revisit the original choreography that I first did nine years ago, because I love the song and wanted to see what more I could do with it, now that I have several more years of dance behind me and technique from a variety of instructors to play with. This show seemed like the perfect opportunity.
At first I had a panic attack when I realized I was performing at a Dark Side show and my grasp of Tribal Fusion technique is still tentative as I slowly move up from Basic Black to Lavender and Turquoise. Oh sure, I'm starting to understand it better and am remembering what muscles I should be using as I execute this new technique, but still, I've barely gotten my feet wet and became worried I would be the obvious amateur in the show.
Fortunately, Audra is not looking for everyone to be dancing the same style or using the same base technique - phew! She stressed that the idea was to have dancers all performing in their own style and in their own voice. That certainly took a massive amount of stress off as I began to work out how my choreography would flow.
I am, for this go around, mixing some classical Egyptian technique with some of the new modern bellydance technique I have been learning from Audra. Heck, there may even be a couple of ballet moves where the movement fits!
Something new I learned from the Creating Choreography workshop I took with Audra last summer is finding my intention. For me, this means finding the story in the music that I am trying to tell and that I want the audience to be able to experience. So, instead of simply trying to figure out what steps simply fit the phrases of music, I am focusing on what movements best express the mood I am trying to set so my story or emotional intent is clear.
I have so far only done one choreography using this new focus technique and the response from other dancers was amazing! I hadn't realized how different going up on stage and thinking "surrender" as my intention rather than "please god, don't let me forget my dance!" It even felt different up on stage with that focus, and while I did have a couple of missteps (yes, pun intended!) the final product was very different than what I had been doing in the past:
So, now as I go through and make my choreography notes, I'm not just noting timing, steps, pacing, directions and arm paths, I am also including what I want to be saying during each phrase of the music.
I have right now what I will call a rough draft of the dance. I am stuck on a couple of technical things and not totally happy with how a couple of phrases are joining together, but that's all a part of the creative process.
I've also decided to let go of the whole concept of "getting it right." What I mean by that is that while I am indeed working out set steps and patterns to fit the story and the mood, I am also allowing myself some freedom and being looser about the actual steps themselves. I am hoping that by giving myself permission to let go a bit, I can get over the bump of coming off stage and agonizing about a missed hip drop. My energy will instead be going into "did I get the story out?"
In no way does this mean I will not be focusing on nailing my technique and drilling, drilling, drilling, but I am curious to see how much different my attitude towards my actual performance changes based on just letting go and dancing.
Stay tuned for further updates and, of course, video of the final product once it has been performed!!
